The Hanover Further Enhances its Industry-Leading Customer Service Center With Agents' Needs in Mind

WORCESTER, Mass., Feb. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hanover Insurance Group (NYSE: THG), a leading provider of property and casualty insurance products nationwide, today announced that it has significantly enhanced its Customer Service Center.  The new distinctive capabilities enable independent agents to now offer even more value for their small business and personal lines customers, while creating a consistently excellent service experience.

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Working as an extension of its agent partners' operations, The Hanover's Customer Service Center enhancements will help agencies take both their commercial and personal lines businesses to the next level. Among the enhanced services are:

• All calls are answered by a "live," licensed professional in the company's Atlanta, Howell, Mich. and Worcester, Mass. service center locations. And, extended service hours are offered to allow for greater customer convenience.
• Annual personalized outbound phone call to every commercial customer who is serviced by The Hanover's center. Each call is from a licensed professional who reviews exposures and needs, to offer them the right coverages. 
• Licensed professionals are now available to support agencies that receive inquiries from potential customers. They review needs and will provide a quote, as appropriate. This unique service is successfully closing nearly 50% of quotes.
• Disaster recovery services for when an agency becomes inaccessible due to an event such as catastrophic weather, so their customers' claims questions and insurance needs can still be handled with minimal interruption.

"The Hanover's Customer Service Center has brought real value to our agency, helping to reduce expenses, redeploy resources and become more sales focused," said P. Marshall Fleming, president and chief executive officer of Bankers Insurance. "It is more agency-based and customer-focused than any other customer service center we have been dealing with across the board."

"All of our enhanced services were developed in conjunction with our independent agent partners to create a concierge-like experience, which builds on the company's innovative model and is geared to help enable agents' succeed," said Kristen Park, vice president of operations at The Hanover.  "And our unique approach of working closely with agency customer service representatives on structuring our service center support model further demonstrates our commitment to an agency focused approach."

Other agent value-creating offerings from The Hanover's service center are:

• Co-branding with agents, such as letters sent to customers on agency letterhead
• Agency-specific toll-free numbers with personalized agency greetings
• Custom marketing materials that reflect and reinforce an agency's brand
• The ability for each agent to choose the level of service delivered and accounts processed through the center
• Constant communication and custom reporting to keep the agencies apprised of customer interactions and changes

"Our philosophy of delivering value-creating customer experience and high client satisfaction through its center has proven to be successful, as demonstrated by our 90 percent customer retention rate," says Park.  

Agents who are interested in learning more about how The Hanover's Customer Service Center can help them to be more successful in both small commercial and personal lines should contact their local regional vice president.

About The Hanover

The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. (NYSE: THG), based in Worcester, Mass., is the holding company for a group of insurers that includes The Hanover Insurance Company, also based in Worcester, Citizens Insurance Company of America, headquartered in Howell, Michigan and Chaucer Holdings PLC, based in London, and their affiliates. The Hanover offers a wide range of property and casualty products and services to businesses, individuals, and families through a select group of agents and brokers.

The company is ranked among the top 25 property and casualty insurers in the United States and has been meeting its obligations to its agent partners and their customers for nearly 160 years.  Through Chaucer, the company also underwrites business at Lloyds in all major insurance and reinsurance classes, balancing global marine, energy, non-marine and aviation with U.K. motor and nuclear. For more information, please visit www.hanover.com.

SOURCE The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc.